Stanford-Chinese University of Hong Kong || Cross-Cultural Rhetoric Project || Sept 2011
Preparation (to be done by each student day/night before exchange begins):
Activity: Your group will choose an American advertisement to share with students at Chinese
University of Hong Kong.
To select an ad, your team should follow these steps:
1. Each individual team member should spend 5-10 minutes searching for an advertisement to
share with their team members. The ad should fall under the category of: ____________.
2. Each member will present his or her advertisement to the team . Among the advertisements
presented, the team as a whole should select a first choice ad and a second choice ad that
will later be shared with students at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
3. The advertisements chosen should use emotion to appeal to American cultural values. See
the following section to help you in your selection process
What kind of ad should you choose?
You should choose an ad that appeals to your
culture through the use of emotion. Use the
internet to locate your ad. As you think about
the ad, consider the following: What is the
argument of the ad? What insight does the
ad provide as to what sorts of emotions are
valued in your culture? How does it use this
emotional appeal? How does it work to
persuade the reader through its use of
emotion?
Example: Tommy Hilfiger advertisement.
http://www.bocker.tv/images/tommyad.jpg
Example: (see Tommy Hilfiger ad, right) This
advertisement appeals to America’s
preference for high-arousal positive states—
all of the subjects have big, radiant smiles
and appear to be almost laughing. The
vibrant colors in the ad give off an air of
excitement.
Once your team has decided on a first and second choice advertisement, pick a spokesperson that
will introduce the ad to the students in Hong Kong during the exchange. The spokesperson will give
a brief introduction the ad by providing some context for the CUHK students (e.g., “this is an ad
from Tommy Hilfiger, which is an American clothing brand. We found this ad on their website.
Etc.) The spokesperson will NOT be discussing culture and emotion in his or her introduction.
However, your team should be prepared to analyze the ad, its cultural context, and the way emotion
is used in the ad with the CUHK students during the exchange.
Copy and paste your two advertisements into a PowerPoint (each with a separate slide) and label
them “first choice” and “second choice.” Email the PowerPoint to me (camdenm@stanford.edu)
with your team letter somewhere in the subject line.